Trump has made more than a mere habit out of promoting the most ridiculous conspiracy theories, almost always about those he considers his political enemies. This along helps encourage the far-right’s love of conspiracies, from Q Anon to the alleged Clinton kill list. The Washington Post makes a list of 23 conspiracy theories Trump has promoted. I’ll just put in the headlines:Copyright by Christopher DOMBRES under a Creative Commons license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CONSPIRACY_THEORIES.jpg

1. The Clintons might be involved in Epstein’s death
2. The Clintons might have been involved in Vince Foster’s death
3. Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States
4. Ted Cruz’s father may have been involved in the Kennedy assassination
5. Joe Scarborough involved in his intern’s death
6. The late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia may have been murdered
7. The “Deep State” is trying to undermine or oust him
8. Vaccines can cause autism
9. The death toll from Hurricane Maria was inflated
10. Muslims are attempting to install sharia law in the United States

11. Thousands of Muslims celebrated in the streets in 9/11
12. Cruz wasn’t eligible to be president because he was born in Canada
13. Marco Rubio wasn’t eligible, either
14. 3 to 5 million illegal votes in the 2016 election — but none for Trump
15. Obama wiretapped Trump Tower
16. Global warming is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese
17. A man who charged the stage at his rally had Islamic State ties
18. The “white genocide” of South African farmers
19. It might not be his voice on the Access Hollywood tape
20. Gen. Pershing executed Muslim terrorists with blood-tipped bullets
21. Wind farms cause cancer
22. The danger of asbestos is a “con” pushed by the mafia
23. A Saudi prince co-owns Fox News

It’s important to understand how unprecedented this is. It simply hasn’t happened before, nor should it ever happen. The president is little more than a right-wing troll. The truth could not be any less relevant to him. As long as it’s useful, he’ll use it no matter how absurd it is. And when you look at the supporting information for each of these, you’ll notice a familiar tactic wherein he doesn’t come right out and say it’s true, he says a lot of people are talking about it. This is how you make the accusation without actually making the accusation so you can later say, “Hey, I didn’t say it was true, I just said a lot of people are talking about it. And it gives his followers an easy way to deny that he actually promoted when it’s quite clear that he was doing exactly that.